by Chiseltooth
Some of the Denver Catholic Workers were happy to hear that affordable housing units were going to be built right next door to them, when their city councilman, Albus Brooks, told them of the plans at a “Points Housing Institute Five Points Housing Conference” this past summer. The lot used to house a gas station that had been torn down decades earlier and it has sat vacant for many years, Deep Rock Water holding on to it for water rights. Sure, their garden, which they had maintained on this lot for years, would be gone, along with the fresh picked raspberries, squash, strawberries, kale, chard and roses that it provided each year- but living with poor people, the volunteers knew the housing crisis in Denver.
The statistics are:
· The Colorado Division of Housing has shown that Denver doesn’t even have half of the number of low-income housing units that it needs to house residents who make under $20,000 a year.
· According to the Denver Housing Market Analysis (DHMA), more than 80% of low income renters in Denver have an unaffordable rent burden (meaning they pay more than 30% of their income for rent).
· According to DHMA, Denver needs an additional 25,647 low-income units to adequately house its low-income residents.
· Nationally, since 2010, 50% of renters have an unaffordable rent burden, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.
And Denver’s Local 9-News reported on April 29th of this year that Denver’s vacancy rates “declined, falling from 4.9 percent at the end of 2012 to 4.6 percent at the beginning of 2013.” And, “Rent in the Denver metro area rose to an average of $992 during the beginning of 2013 - that's the highest rate in the city's history.” So, people were pretty excited when Brooks claimed to be bringing in new, much needed “affordable housing."
That is, everyone was excited until they learned about the details of the project.
“Affordable Housing” is based on a percentage of an area’s AMI (Area Median Income). The housing project planned for next door to the Catholic Worker house would include 60% AMI apartments, meaning that people making up to 60% of Denver’s AMI were eligible to move into these buildings and the prices were adjusted accordingly.
So what does that mean? Denver’s AMI, according to HUD (Housing and Urban Development), is $79,000, meaning that people who make 60% of that make roughly $47,580 a year. And anyone who makes up to $47,580 is eligible to live there, just so long as they are able to pay the rent, which the developers say will be around $1000 for a studio or one bedroom apartment, roughly the same as market rate housing. Given that people whose sole income is SSI (federal disability benefits for those with limited income) only make (on average) $710 a month, and given that a full time minimum-wage earning employee only makes $1244.80 a month before taxes – leaving a person paying 1000 for rent with only $244.80 to live on each month, it obvious that this ‘affordable housing’ is not affordable for everyone.
And CW volunteers were only more disheartened to go to a ‘5 Points Business District’ meeting, where the project developers told the neighborhood that they planned to build an 8 story building, and add nearly 200 units to a historic neighborhood (the only designated cultural district in Colorado) that already had problems with parking and density, not to mention the fact that the average building surrounding the site of the new construction is only 2 stories tall.
Worse yet, when neighbors heard the words ‘affordable housing,' they raised their voices in opposition, and completely disregarding that Denver has long been known as an expensive housing market, the homeowners seemed to speak in unison, “5 Points has too much low-income housing! Our property values will decrease even more! We need market-rate!”
Sadly, the developers folded. The entire structure, when it is completed, will be full-price market rate housing. And because the majority of the development is rental, they don’t have to contribute a penny to the city’s low-income housing fund.
As anyone who has ever been homeless knows, and as anyone who takes seriously the task of helping to end homelessness will tell you, the answer to homelessness is always going to be a home. But for now, developers and city planners are choosing to plant gigantic non-affordable homes where many lives had been nourished by a beautiful garden. And so the struggle continues.
Some of the Denver Catholic Workers were happy to hear that affordable housing units were going to be built right next door to them, when their city councilman, Albus Brooks, told them of the plans at a “Points Housing Institute Five Points Housing Conference” this past summer. The lot used to house a gas station that had been torn down decades earlier and it has sat vacant for many years, Deep Rock Water holding on to it for water rights. Sure, their garden, which they had maintained on this lot for years, would be gone, along with the fresh picked raspberries, squash, strawberries, kale, chard and roses that it provided each year- but living with poor people, the volunteers knew the housing crisis in Denver.
The statistics are:
· The Colorado Division of Housing has shown that Denver doesn’t even have half of the number of low-income housing units that it needs to house residents who make under $20,000 a year.
· According to the Denver Housing Market Analysis (DHMA), more than 80% of low income renters in Denver have an unaffordable rent burden (meaning they pay more than 30% of their income for rent).
· According to DHMA, Denver needs an additional 25,647 low-income units to adequately house its low-income residents.
· Nationally, since 2010, 50% of renters have an unaffordable rent burden, according to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.
And Denver’s Local 9-News reported on April 29th of this year that Denver’s vacancy rates “declined, falling from 4.9 percent at the end of 2012 to 4.6 percent at the beginning of 2013.” And, “Rent in the Denver metro area rose to an average of $992 during the beginning of 2013 - that's the highest rate in the city's history.” So, people were pretty excited when Brooks claimed to be bringing in new, much needed “affordable housing."
That is, everyone was excited until they learned about the details of the project.
“Affordable Housing” is based on a percentage of an area’s AMI (Area Median Income). The housing project planned for next door to the Catholic Worker house would include 60% AMI apartments, meaning that people making up to 60% of Denver’s AMI were eligible to move into these buildings and the prices were adjusted accordingly.
So what does that mean? Denver’s AMI, according to HUD (Housing and Urban Development), is $79,000, meaning that people who make 60% of that make roughly $47,580 a year. And anyone who makes up to $47,580 is eligible to live there, just so long as they are able to pay the rent, which the developers say will be around $1000 for a studio or one bedroom apartment, roughly the same as market rate housing. Given that people whose sole income is SSI (federal disability benefits for those with limited income) only make (on average) $710 a month, and given that a full time minimum-wage earning employee only makes $1244.80 a month before taxes – leaving a person paying 1000 for rent with only $244.80 to live on each month, it obvious that this ‘affordable housing’ is not affordable for everyone.
And CW volunteers were only more disheartened to go to a ‘5 Points Business District’ meeting, where the project developers told the neighborhood that they planned to build an 8 story building, and add nearly 200 units to a historic neighborhood (the only designated cultural district in Colorado) that already had problems with parking and density, not to mention the fact that the average building surrounding the site of the new construction is only 2 stories tall.
Worse yet, when neighbors heard the words ‘affordable housing,' they raised their voices in opposition, and completely disregarding that Denver has long been known as an expensive housing market, the homeowners seemed to speak in unison, “5 Points has too much low-income housing! Our property values will decrease even more! We need market-rate!”
Sadly, the developers folded. The entire structure, when it is completed, will be full-price market rate housing. And because the majority of the development is rental, they don’t have to contribute a penny to the city’s low-income housing fund.
As anyone who has ever been homeless knows, and as anyone who takes seriously the task of helping to end homelessness will tell you, the answer to homelessness is always going to be a home. But for now, developers and city planners are choosing to plant gigantic non-affordable homes where many lives had been nourished by a beautiful garden. And so the struggle continues.
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